Remembering the CrackBerry: BlackBerry Migration Survey

Two-thirds of CIOs believe end user satisfaction is more important than security.

2 of 5

Two-thirds of CIOs believe end user satisfaction is more important than security.

End-user satisfaction trumps security. While 60 percent of CIOs believe smartphones and tablets are less secure than laptops, less than one-third of respondents say the CIO believes the security of smartphones and tablets is more important than end-user choices and preferences.

This shift in attitude helps explains why Blackberry is falling to the wayside. Users comfortable with using their non-Blackberry devices will request similar formats from the company, or use them in BYOD programs.

Becca Lipman is Senior Editor for Wall Street & Technology. She writes in-depth news articles with a focus on big data and compliance in the capital markets. She regularly meets with information technology leaders and innovators and writes about cloud computing, datacenters, ... View Full Bio

Good question. It seems like quite a few people are still using Blackberry, but are there enough to justify creating apps for Blackberry over iPhone or Android? Doesn't seem likely, especially since Blackberry use is predicted to decrease over time.

Similarly, there are still a number of BlackBerry lovers! Execs can phase them out, but they can't eliminate them. They have to prepare to accept all these BYO options. If they build out their infrastructure to only support Android and Apple they are building themselves into a corner - they must be prepared to take on new trending mobile devices as they come in.

So, user experience has trumped security and as also, I suspect more business apps are available now for the iPhone and Android. Is anyone developing for the Blackberry? I also read that Blackberry is going to focus on helping corporations secure mobile apps.

It seems security remains important, but pushed lower on the priority list in favor of user experience. This all goes back to happy employees are productive employees, and BYO benefits - I think in the face of employee retention corporations are willing to take on the risks of Apple and Android, although to Jonathan's point they aren't as critical as originally believed.

In the current mobile security environment iPhones are very secure though. Most of the mobile malware we're seeing in the world is in fake apps. And those are ALL targeting Android because Apple curates its app store. Things could obviously change, but for right now iPhones are very secure.